Over the last 54 years, George Sephton’s voice has become as much a part of the Anfield experience as Mo Salah goals, Steven Gerrard‘s screamers or the Kop’s roars.Going to the match encompasses so much more than simply watching 22 players kick a ball from one end of a field to the other; it is the senses that surround the game that infiltrate your memories and instigate nostalgia.Whether it be the deep-fried scent of the burger vans or the vivid glow of the pitch, the sights, smells and sounds of a matchday are backing tracks that will be there long after Liverpool’s next big-money signing has been and gone.Chief among the senses associated with watching Liverpool is the sound of Sephton’s deep tones, which, since 1971, have been a calming constant through triumph and tragedy.Now, after 54 years, Sephton is retiring from his role as Anfield’s stadium announcer. George Sephton hopes Liverpool don’t change his ‘dignified’ approach • READ HERE: Revealed – 10 songs Virgil van Dijk picked for Liverpool’s Premier League celebrationIn an age of commercialisation, when many football stadia sound closer to that of a fairground than an environment for elite sport, the voice of Anfield has remained understated in his approach, an attitude he hopes Liverpool maintain in the future.“I do hope that they keep up some of my traditions,” Sephton, who doesn’t yet know the identity of his successor, told This Is Anfield.“I’d like to think I’ve kept the dignity of the club all these years. I know I used to get lots and lots of mail from people who go to away matches who say, ‘Liverpool, we get variations on the music, we get the calm voice’.“You go to the Emirates now or wherever, and you’ve got somebody who thinks he’s running a nightclub somewhere. I do hope that’s not going to change.”While Sephton said his low-key manner wasn’t a directive from the club, it is an approach Liverpool tend to take in other areas.On social media, for example, there is a more professional, unadorned outlook in comparison to other top clubs.However, Sephton does think Liverpool are “leaning towards” a more commercialised fashion of music and stadium announcements.He said: “I really hope they don’t go down that path but I suspect they might well, because I know the people who are running that side of the club are leaning towards a lot of house music and stuff.“I had an argument just before I finished. When we won the league, I was told not to play We Are the Champions by Queen. I was horrified. I said, ‘I’ve been waiting 35 years to do this…“I was just furious because I thought this is, you know, tradition. I started getting emails from people, ‘Why aren’t you playing We Are the Champions?’“I said, ‘I’ve been told not to’.” Why now is a “good time” to step down Despite the odd disagreement with club officials, Sephton leaves his role on good terms, having mutually agreed to step down.Before his final game against Crystal Palace on May 25, the 79-year-old was presented on the pitch with a framed Champions Wall and ‘Voice of Anfield, 54’ shirt by Kenny Dalglish.Explaining why now is the time to retire, Sephton commented: “I really wasn’t thinking about going just yet, but then we had a meeting and it became clear this was a good time.“And it’s true because I’ll be 80 next birthday, which is insane for somebody doing what I’ve been doing. I’ve still got my marbles, I think, although I wonder sometimes!“The fact that we won the league and the fact that I’d been there so long. The club offered to give me a season ticket and I was thinking, ‘I can do without all this hassle’.“I was thinking I could do without all this hassle because sometimes it gets very pressurised; people on your shoulder, you know, ‘Do this, do that, do the other’.“It’s a long time since I had what I used to have with the crowd, the rapport with the crowd, because the last couple of years, everything I say more or less has been scripted. Before, I’d be chatting to the crowd.” How George Sephton got the jobWhile it might feel like Sephton has always been a part of Anfield’s fabric, he was also once a young boy who attended Anfield as a normal fan.That was until one matchday, 54 years ago, when he decided he wanted to be the new voice of Anfield.The DJ explained: “One night in April, 1971, the guy on the PA made a bloomer of some description – I can’t even remember what it was now, to be honest – and I just sort of tutted and looked at her (my wife) and said, ‘Oh, this fella’s awful’.“She looked at me deadpan and said, ‘It’s alright for you down here. I bet you couldn’t do any better’, and that was like a red rag to a bull.“To this day, I don’t know what possessed me. If I’d known what I was letting myself in for, I wouldn’t have believed it.“I went home and got the old typewriter out, because that’s what we used then, and wrote to Peter Robinson. His title was club secretary but he was the equivalent of the CEO of the operations side.“Next thing I know, I got a letter off Peter, ‘Come and see me’.“I went in to see him and he decided I didn’t have two heads and decided to give me a trial, and in theory the trial has only just finished in 2025! Nobody’s ever said to me over the years, ‘OK, son. The job’s yours’.” How the role has changed over the years A lot has changed since 1971.The invention of mobile phones, digital cameras and the internet have all changed the world. Meanwhile, 11 permanent Liverpool managers have been appointed, incidentally the same number of UK prime ministers who have taken power in that period.Sephton recalled how, back when he started, “it was quite simple: turn up, play a few records, read the teams out, bang on You’ll Never Walk Alone, sit back and watch the game.”He continued: “I didn’t have any commercial stuff to read out then. None of this ‘the new kit’s in the club shop’ or ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’.“And we never used to announce the goalscorer in those days. People don’t realise that only started this century really. I’ve never liked that.“I always take the [Bill] Shankly view, if you need to be told who’s scored, you shouldn’t be inside Anfield, and I still stick with that but that’s what they do now and I only started doing that, I think it was in the year 2000.”While Sephton does read out the goalscorers, he doesn’t announce the teams. That job is left to LFC TV’s Peter McDowall, another figure who has become a staple of matchday at Anfield.An aspect of the role Sephton did have to contend with, though, was the introduction of VAR.“The last few months we’ve had a link [to the VAR room] and I can hear what’s going on. It’s quite interesting listening to the discussions,” he explained.“Sometimes they shut down so you didn’t hear the discussions, but then sometimes you could hear them talking and then it would come through, check over, and that used to drive me batty because every goal you had to wait until the words ‘check over’ came through.”While there will no doubt be moments ahead when George wishes he were still up in the booth – he has admitted it hasn’t quite sunk in yet – the boyhood Red will at least be able to watch the game in relative comfort.With the club having given him a season ticket for life, Sephton will finally return to being one of us for the first time in 54 years.However, no matter who takes over, he will always be our voice of Anfield.